Ranma Layer
by Zine
Summary: Ranma watches the final battle between Athena and Hikaru when Nabiki jokingly challenges his hand in the games. Angelic Layer and Ranma crossover.


The atmosphere around the Tendo estate was quite. Inside though was a different story, with loud cheering punctuated the sound of an announcer on the television. Nabiki, Ranma and Ryoga were silent as their eyes were mesmerized by the scene unfolded. Ukyo, Akane and Shampoo cheered for their favorite fighters on the screen.

The scene went dead silent, as a bright explosion flared on the screen and dissipated. Akane's shoulders slumped, "It's over. No one has been able to come back after taking that."

Inside, a different thought was going through Ranma's head, *Stick with it, the will to go forward is all ya need.* A call went out from Misaki's second, and shortly after the audience. He's arms tensed as the cheering continued, and he hummed under his breath with those in the television audience, cheering the same name over and over. "Hikaru...."

He released his breath as Hikaru stumbled to her feet and took a ready stance.

Nabiki smirked seeing her sister's fiance almost willing himself into the television and taking up the fight personally. "Nice fight, eh Ranma?"

He snapped out of it quickly, "Err, ya. It's interesting. I bet though I could do better than them though, after all, I have training in how to fight for real. Not that I would play with dolls anyhow."

Nabiki caught on the b-word. "Oh really, a bet? How much?"

This caught Ranma off guard. "Hey! I'm not playing with no doll..." He trailed off as the scene on the screen picked up the pace. Athena, the defending champion of Angelic Layer versus Hikaru, the miracle rookie. Everyone's mouths dropped as a scene as beautiful as any they had seen unfolded, literally. Wings - white and full - flared from Hikaru. After diving at Athena, the fight continued into the air. Athena prepared her blast once more...

Ranma smirked, "Its over. Even I wouldn't use an attack twice that failed."

Nabiki glansed over at Ranma questionably, and quickly back to the television. Energy rippled out from the arena as the tumbling duo slammed into the arena floor. Seconds ticked on, till Hikaru appeared through the haze.

"HIKARU WINS!" blared the announcer.

"Yes!" Akane and Ukyo hugged Ranma, and quickly separated. The pause didn't last long as they continued to cheer.

Ranma smirked and stood, "Well, no sense in me sitting around here. I'm heading out for a while."

**------------------------ **Two weeks later....

Akane looked around the dojo, the yard, "I could've sworn, Ranma was here an hour ago." Spotting Nabiki's open window, "Hey, Nabiki!"

Nabiki got up from her bed reading her manga. Peering over the sill. "Yes Akane?"

"Have you seen Ranma around? I need him to help me out with something."

Nabiki rubbed her chin, "Hmmm, no I haven't. Last I knew he was in the dojo."

"Where is that baka," Akane growled. "Well, let me know if you find him!" Under her breath, "He's got to be around here someplace."

**------------------------**

On the other side of Tokyo, Ranma looked up at the title of the building. "Well, looks like I'm in the right place. Lets see if they can stand up to the best."

Ranma peeked in the glass doorway, trying to see anything inside. After the main tournament yesterday, cleaning crews moved in and finished their job in record time. All that was left were some minor decoration changes to do since there was a change in this year's champion. Trying the doors, he found them locked. Walking around the large round building, he spotted a service entrance garage that was open. Staying close to the wall in the dim light, Ranma found a stairway going up to the second level. He came out into a hallway with a few plants, some video moving pictures of figures fighting and one or two statues of the two angels he saw fighting in the finals.

"High tech. They must be loaded!" Ranma commented. Three doors down, one was open with the lights on. Creeping closer, he started to hear voices. Curious, he was about to peek around the corner when he heard footsteps coming toward him. Panicing, he dove into the dark opened door across the hallway. Scrambling behind one of the computer counters, he sighed in relief that he wasn't discovered.

"HEY! Who are you?" A deep voice said right beside him.

"Eep!" Ranma jumped out in surprise. He was in a defensive stance, and looked over his opponent. He was a large man in a tan suit, short hair. Kinda with the build of a body builder. The final feature was the guy was wearing a clown wig, complete with makeup and a red rubber nose.

Snickers started, and quickly built up to full blown laughter. Ranma completely forgot he was sneaking into the place.

"What's going in here!? I think its time for another Penalty Game if someone doesn't speak up!"

Ranma straightened up, and faced the new arrival.

The man that was repairing the computer console underbelly stood up, "Chief Mihara! This guy came in, and we are supposed to be closed up for the week."

Mihara adjusted his glasses and looked over the youth. He looked strong, probably could help with the testing since no one here was athletic enough. "So, what is your name?"

"Ranma Saotome. I came here to try this angel thingy."

A smirk appeared, "So you think you have what it takes... If you can pass my tests."

This time it was Ranma's time to smile, "I accept, your challenge."

Mihara turned and went two doors down. Pressing the open button to the side, the lights to the room came on automatically. Ranma followed him in and took in his surroundings. On one side of the room was a round platform with a few headsets with visors plugged in around it. On the other side was a counter with various sets of mechanical legs and arms. The legs were standing straight up, upside down. Then finally, there was a treadmill.

Flicking a few switches, Mihara pointed to the treadmill. "Run on that, if you last then I'll let you have a chance at Angelic Layer."

Ranma stretched his legs, cracked his knuckles and hopped on. "Ready, just hope you are."

Pressing a button, the treadmill's laser tracking systems measuring Ranma's leg movements started. The mechanical legs walked at the same pace on the counter, though upside down and were also being tracked for later analysis. Smirking slightly, Mihara brought the rate up to three quarters and remained there for ten minutes.

Curious to when the testing would begin, "That's a good warmup, so when's the test'n start?"

Mihara's jaw dropped. The kid should have just run three miles in ten minutes - any marathon runner would have dropped flat. Pushing the treadmill to its max, Ranma still easily kept up. Amazed at the kid, he neglected to notice the right knee joint on the prototype legs come loose and send the top half flying toward the martial artist.

Catching the leg easily, Ranma took off the head set. The damaged legs then stopped immediately. "Sorry about that. I think this is yours."

Jaw still open, the chief accepted the part. Ranma waved his hands in front of the chief's face, "You alright there?"

Shaking his head back into reality, "Hmmm... yes. Good job there. You passed. You wouldn't mind helping me develop this prototype equipment some more? In exchange you can keep the angel for nothing. Deal?"

Ranma thought it sounded good, didn't appear to have any Nabiki style hidden agendas. "Sure thing, but would it be possible for me to stay here as part of the deal? I was just planning on camping out someplace."

"Yes, but not here. You can stay with someone I know that could use a hand with cooking."

Ranma's eyebrow shot up, "Not a tomboy, is she?"

"She? Eh, good guess. No, not a tomboy - just a bit rough on getting up in the mornings. By the way, you may call me..." the chief paused and rubbed his chin, "Icchan."

"Icchan? Wierd, but ok. What now?"

Icchan picked up the phone on the wall, and pushed a speed dial button. The phone picked up, "Hello. This is Mihara. Say, you still have that room free? ..... Perfect, I found someone that will be helping me with the prototypes for a while, and needs a place to stay. He has some potential. Would you mind?" His head knodded. "Yes, I can help out with some of the expenses. ..... Ranma is his name. ..... We'll be there in about twenty minutes. Bye." **  
**

**------------------------**

Ranma looked out the passenger side window of the van, bored. "So, what's her name?"

Icchan glanced over to the pigtailed martial artist, "Hmm?"

"The person I'm staying with?"

"Ah, glad you asked. You are staying with Shoko Asami, sister of a very good friend of mine. She is a tv newscaster, you probably saw her during the tournament," Icchan then remained quiet, still trying to get a feel for the teenager. The boy seemed to be relaxed, not at all nervous. In fact, he seemed downright bored.

They eventually pulled up to the house that Shoko lives in. Ranma pulled his large pack out of the back, cradling the angel egg protectively.

Icchan then remembered something, "Do you have a computer?"

Ranma paused in midstep, "Uh, no. Do I need one?"

Crossing his left arm over his chest, and rubbing his chin with the right hand, Icchan pondered, "We'll have to see if Shoko has one you can use. Else, I may have to make a special case and help you set up your angel with my system."

Turning, the two went up to the door. Ranma range the doorbell. They heard some scrambling inside, but eventually the front door opened.

A woman with slightly messy light brown hair greeted them. She bowed once, "Hello, I am Shoko Asami."

Ranma bowed, "Ranma Saotome."

Shoko moved out of the way to let the two through. She was impressed with the size of the pack Ranma carried, it barely fit through the doorway. "I'll show to you to the spare bedroom. It used to be used by Misaki when she stayed here, now she is staying with her mother after the tournament."

The name sounded familiar to Ranma, but couldn't recall where he heard it. Going into the room, it had a mattress bed - which solicited a grin. "Better than the bedroll I brought." He put the angel egg carefully on the desk, and then the pack on the ground.

By the time he exited the room, he found that Icchan had already left in the van.

"Mihara said he'll be by in the morning around 8 am to pick you up. I have a spare laptop he said you will need to configure your angel." Shoko was digging in her desk which had mounds of paper stacked. Eventually, she pulled out a gray laptop. "Here, you can use this. Just follow the directions that came with the angel, and you'll do fine."

Ranma accepted the laptop, when his stomach growled. It was approaching 6 pm, and he remembered having last eaten breakfast only.

Shoko grew a small smile, "Sorry, I'm not the best of cooks. Would you have any cooking skills? In return you won't have to pay me back for anything you eat."

This time Ranma spread a grin, "Sure thing. Just a sec," he ran back in the bedroom and put the laptop beside the angel egg. Rolling up his sleeves, "First though, if I'm going to be staying here there is something I should show you."

As he turned on the warm water to wash his hands, the cold water knob spurted out suddenly. Shoko's attention was centered on the tap, but when she turned back to Ranma - she was greeted with a shorter, definitely female, redhead but was wearing the same clothing. She was frantically trying to get under the sink to shut off the cold water flow.

Shoko stood there, trying to logically think what just happened.

Finally Ranma came up, dripping wet. "Ah jeez, I was hoping to get wet on my own and avoid making a mess." The took off her shirt wring it out, grumbling about stupid curses and being a water magnet.

Definitely female. Now Shoko was glad that Icchan had left, who knows what the pervert would be doing now.

Ranma put her wrinkled shirt back on. "Well, now you know my secret."

"Wha... what happened?"

Going back to the sink, Ranma grabbed a glass and put some hot water from the tap in it. "I'm cursed. When I was on a training trip with my old man, we came across this place in China called Jusenkou."

Shoko knodded weakly.

"There, there are several pools, each one with their own tragic story. I fell in," Ranma then gave a mock Chinese accent, "Naniyichuan. Pool of drown girl. There tragic story of girl who drown there 1500 years ago. Now whoever fall in pool take body of girl."

"When I am doused with cold water, I change to a girl." Ranma then hefted the cooling but still warm glass of water over her head. She grew several inches, and the femine curves were replaced with the chizeled and well defined muscle of Ranma's male form. "When doused with warm water, I am changed to my original form as a guy."

Shoko was still quiet, the wheels in her head grinding. On one side as a newscaster, she saw this as a huge scoop. On the other she was familiar with keeping people's personal secrets confidential - such as when her sister wished to remain quiet with Misaki. In the end, she decided to keep Ranma's trust. "I would suggest we keep this a secret. I don't know how others in the area would take it."

Ranma knodded, "In Nerima ward, this is fairly common. I'm assuming though elsewhere it isn't as common."

Rolling the dampened sleeves back up, Ranma flexed his arm. "Now then, how about I get started on dinner?"

Shoko knodded, and fell back on the living room couch. She contented herself to watching the martial artist in his acrobatics in the kitchen - seeming to make the art of preparing food to the edge of full hand to hand combat. Also, she was deducing the other truthes of Ranma's curse. If that was magic, then there had to be other real magic in the world.

Before long, Ranma had prepared a full course meal with stir fried, green tea, and a batch of baking rolls in the oven. The mingling aromas brought the news caster back to the present, and she was realizing just how hungry she was.

The two sat down at the table. Ranma dug in immediately at blazing speed. Shoko didn't say anything, wondering why he was in such a hurry. She chalked it off to what she saw of him in the kitchen.

"You do martial arts?"

"Hmmm?" Ranma swallowed a mouthful. "Uh, ya. I'm heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. I'm the best there is."

"So is that why you are trying out angelic layer?" Now the news caster in Shoko was starting to come out, and she was starting to relax.

"Sorta. Nabiki, one of the folks I'm staying with in Nerima, sorta challenged me to try out angelic layer. I accepted, although I didn't tell her," Ranma then grabbed a roll and stuffed it in his mouth.

"Why didn't you tell her?"

Ranma shrugged, "I don't know, maybe so they'll leave me alone. If she knew I was here, the rest of the loon squad would be breaking down your walls." He held up his hand, "Don't ask, just that it would be ugly."

The rest of dinner was quiet till Ranma excused himself and went into the bedroom. Going over to the desk, he picked up the angel egg. "Read the directions eh?" He picked up a small booklet that came with.

Going to the first page, "Hmmm... says to open it in the bath." He blanched, "Great, just what would pops think if he found me playing with dolls in the bath. Challenge is a challenge, and I never lose."

Grabbing a towel, he went into the furo. After washing up, he rinsed off and stepped into the large basin. Before opening the egg, he gave the angel inside a once over. "Doesn't look so tough."

Popping the seal, the watery fluid inside flowed into the tub. Lifting out the angel, Ranma held it in one hand. "Darn, Icchan just _had_ to give me a girl doll." Getting out, Ranma dried off and went back to his room in the towel.

Putting the doll on the bed, he changed into some boxers. A quick glance at the laptop, "Guess it's now or never." He pulled out the manual, "I hate computers, but at this this is sorta related to martial arts. So, I should be able to do it." Skimming down, he saw a diagram putting on the hair and cutting it to length. Smirking, Ranma started adjusting the hair. "Why not make it like me..."

He was impressed with the array of hair colors, but was undecided between the red of his girl side, or the black of his guy side. Eventually, Ranma decided on the red since the doll was a girl. The hair was tediously tied into a pigtail, although in the end he realized it was too long and extended past the waist. "Heh, kinda looks like that Hikaru gal from that Rayearth show."

Reaching for the sissors, he was almost ready to cut when he second thought and left it. "Maybe not... it really isn't me so it should have some differences."

Next, he looked at another diagram in the manual and mimiced it putting the the angel in the creation stand. It hovered there, unmoving.

Next, he turned on the laptop with the CD inside. The familiar Angelic Layer logo from the championship on television came up, then changed to a screen with various bars and numbers.

"Select the attributes for the angel eh? Speed, and a moderate amount strength."

Clicking on the next button, all that came up with a name. Here, Ranma was drew up a blank. He rested his head on his hands, staring at the angel. "Heh, if Akane had her way it would probably be called D-Chan for doll chan."

Eventually he knodded off to sleep.

--- MORNING ---

Ranma jerked open with a start when his biological clock stepped in. The clock read 7:30 am. Flexing, he noticed the laptop and angel were still in the same state he left them.

"I guess I'll have to call you something, may as well go with... hmm... Reiko. Not like I care that much about the doll," Ranma typed in the name, and confirmed his entry.

The stand rings lowered, energizing the angel and melding the hair. Slowly, it opened its eyes - which were purple. Then it fell over, which Ranma easily caught.

"Now, to get some clothes for you." A quick check on the clock showed 20 more minutes till Icchan's arrival to pick him up. Digging into this pack at the foot of the bed, he changed into his usual red and black Chinese clothing and threw the clothing he was wearing yesterday to the side.

Further scrounging in the pack he pulled out a needle and thread used for patching up holes when on the road. Handy when there isn't a town nearby, or money short to buy new cloths.

All he had available was some white cloth, but was very light. In less than five minutes (with application of martial arts sewing), the doll was in a very accurate white martial arts gi. Some more scrounging and he put a black belt on.

"Finished! Won't Icchan be surpised. Hopefully today I can try it out." Ranma put the doll a smaller bag he found in the room and rushed out to fix up and eat breakfast.

**------------------------**

Ranma hastily exited the front door with a piece of toast in his mouth. Icchan was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel of the van, and glanced at his watch. 7:59 am. He sighed, "At least he was on time, no penalty game this morning..."

As Ranma sat down, he pulled out something from his pocket. It was the angel.

Smiling, Icchan pulled into traffic and made their way to the arena and research facility.

Fifteen minutes were spent in silence, which neither of the men minded. Both wanted to get down to business and instead of chit-chat.

Icchan opened the front doors with a swipe of his ID card. Ranma followed behind, then the doors behind beeped and locked automatically. They again went into the lab they had been in earlier the night before, this time the broken leg was back in one piece with some modifications to the base and knee joints.

"I'll have you do some more tests this morning. Eventually, I hope to have you put on the equipment so we can fine tune its ability to withstand human weight. That will probably come around November in about two months." Icchan then noticed Ranma looking for a place to put his pack down. "Oh, put it by the platform there. This afternoon, we'll give your angel a run. What did you name her?"

Ranma stepped up to the tredmill, and touched his toes stretching. "Reiko."

Icchan hooked up his laptop to the sensors once more, and turned on the battery packs in the electronic leg. "You can start now, we'll eventually speed up to the rate you had yesterday. Just try to maintain a natural moving stride."

Outside, a visitor was making a stop. Before entering, he heard an unknown person speaking with Iccan. Peering around the door corner, he got a glimpse of the the teenager running at a fast pace, but barely even exerting himself. On the other side of the lab, his brother's lifelong achievement for a prosthetic leg was operating and being closely monitored.

Stepping into the doorway fully, Ohjiro waited silently. His eyes grew wider with amazement as the angle of the treadmill grew to its maximum, yet the teen in the red shirt handled it extremely well.

A scream of metal protested from where the leg was, and Icchan punched down on the abort switch. "Good. This should be a better stress test than before now that I was ready for it. Now I can take a look at what failed."

Ohjiro entered, clapping, "Wow! I've never seen anyone do that before! You some sort of Olympic athlete?"

Ranma and Icchan turned their heads. Ranma swore he could have seen this new arrival before, all these memories itching on the edge of recognition was frustrating. "Say, have I seen you from someplace?"

This time it was Ohjiro's turn to be confused, he would have thought that anyone that was connected to angelic layer in any way would have recognized him. His confused expression changed to a smile realizing it would be a good change - perhaps he could make another friend like Misaki without the stardom ideas that most people had about him.

"Ohjiro Mihara," he held out his hand, "pleased to meet you."

Ranma was still trying to place the face and name, "Uh, Ranma Saotome. I'm here helping out Icchan with his leg thingies."

Ohjiro gave his brother an eyebrow raised at the pet-name Icchan. The name was only used when his brother had a special project person, or among people he was very familiar with.

Icchan adjusted his glasses and handed Ranma the angel Reiko. "My brother also is involved with angelic layer. Perhaps you two can give Reiko her first lesson." He motioned to the unpowered pad, with the headsets laid off to the side. "Feel free to use this one. It should have a fully functional version of the scenery render engine that was used in the championship."

Unshouldering a metal carrying case, Ohjiro laid it on a counter and unlatched it. Ranma peered around and looked at its contents while standing on his tiptoes. Recognition finally hit.

"You are that guy that controlled Wizard!" Ranma was now plainly excited with the opportunity to fight one of the best.

Ohjiro inwardly growned, "Yes, I am Wizard's dues."

Ranma's next state then took a turn that Ohjiro wasn't expecting.

"So, where do I start?"

Blinking twice, Ohjiro had expected to go into an explanation to questions that some of his fans relentlessly hammered him with. He was thankful that Ranma wasn't a girl, else he would also have more troubles. "Uhm, first let's go over the basics because this is your first time."

Ranma looked as if he was about to learn a new technique, Ohjiro had his full attention.

"This is the layer, here the deus's-"

Interrupting, Ranma asked, "Deus?"

"The deus is the person that projects their will through the layer to their angel. Basically, that is you and me. Anyhow, to use the link put on this headset." Ohjiro then handed what looked like visor to Ranma. It had miniature angel wings on the side, which were currently folded. A long, thin and white cable extended from it to the layer.

"Put it on, and there should be a button on the side to link you."

Ranma did as he was asked, glad that the visor had auto adjusting straps. As he pushed the link button, the layer started to come to life. Electronics flickered on, and a soft glow emanated from the top and bottom portions of the layer. Finally, a scene materialized - an old European style castle, complete with moat and flying banners. However, it was totally devoid of any inhabitants.

Pulling up a chair, Ohjiro motioned for Ranma to sit down. He then took a seat beside him and activated his own visor.

At this time, Icchan paused working on some equations to the pressure distributors on the electronic leg to watch the two. He was curious to see if Ranma's extensive martial arts experience he claimed to have would have any effect.

"Now, one at a time we perform the angel entry." Gripping Wizard, Ohjiro aimed for the center of the layer. "Wizard show your magic to the world! Angel fall in!"

Ranma watched as the angel glided through the air, then as it passed the edge of the layer took on a life of its own. It tucked and flipped to land on its feet on one of the castle towers. The angel then turned its head to look at the two deuses.

"Awesome!" As Ranma was about to throw his own angel in, Ohjiro stopped him and shook his head.

"Wait. You need to announce your entry into the layer. Not only will it reflect what your angel is fighting for, but what you feel for your angel."

Ranma looked down at the angel, trying to think of a good entry. He was always one to barge in demanding a challenge, then announce himself. How would he do the same with the angel? It would be it fighting instead of him.

"Alright then, try this. I can change it right?"

Ohjiro knodded reluctantly, "Yes, for now. When you go to your first tournament though, you will need to make it permanent for the season."

"As heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts," Ranma released the angel at the ring, "we accept", the angel then entered the layer, "your... challenge..... Uh, angel fall in?" The angel then lifelessly hit the castle wall, and crashed to the ground unmoving.

"Nice try, now to get the basics of moving." Wizard jumped to one of the castle walls, then down to the ground beside Reiko. "Oh, just a reminder after this, you may want to put some sort of undershirt on Reiko. That gi doesn't exactly meet the decency requirements needed by the tournaments."

Ranma fidgeted, realizing he made one of his common mistakes when he changed forms himself. "Err... sorry."

"Anyhow, to move, you have to make your will known to the angel. Think it moving, visualize it."

Frowning, Ranma stared at the angel, trying to see it doing a pushup to at least get to a sitting position. The hand barely moved.

Icchan watched from the side, silent.

Closing his eyes, Ranma tried something different - trying to feel himself doing a flip up as if he was in combat.

"Wow!" Ohjiro nearly fell over from his seat in surprise as he willed Wizard to do a desperate dodge to miss the flip kick as Reiko burst up.

Ranma opened his eyes to view if he succeeded, only to witness Reiko falling over lifeless once more. "What happened?"

"Reiko was motionless for a bit, then all of a sudden she did a perfect flip kick at Wizard and landed." Shaking his head, "Now... well... she was just standing there, then fell over."

Ranma concentrated on his angel, trying to force it to do the act again. Slowly the arm raised and Reiko very slowly got to her knees. Wizard dropped down from the wall beside Reiko and helped her to stand. Ranma's grip on the chair tightened and he didn't notice it begin to crack with his frustration. He finally closed his eyes and visualized one of the more advanced anything goes grappling holds.

Opening his eyes he saw Wizard face planted into the ground and totally rendered immovable. Until Reiko lost her grip and fell over.

"Darn this! What am I doing wrong?!"

Ohjiro placed his hand on Ranma's shoulder, "Why don't we take a break? Not everyone gets it on the first try."

The hand was shrugged off. "I will master this. A Saotome never loses."

For the next five minutes Ranma tried to force his will on it. "Come on, just move darn it! Why won't it move unless I close my eyes?"

Across the room Icchan frowned but was silent.

"Perhaps I can help?"

Everyone whirled to face the doorway.

"Shu!" Icchan rushed over to her. "Did you come here on your own? Misaki with you?"

Shu smiled, "She brought me here but I insisted she go back home to be with her friends. They have a class project they are working on and I told her you are here with me." She nudged the arm controls and the wheelchair gently glided into the laboratory. Resting on her lap was Athena.

Reaching over to a spare control helmet Shu put it on. "What's your name?"

"Ranma. Ranma Saotome."

Shu turned and gave a soft smile. "Thank you for helping Icchan with his project. He was quite excited when he spoke of you this morning." Turning back to the arena, Shu softly launched Athena into the layer. "Athena's wings, open up the future! Angel fall in!"

Athena landed elegantly on one of the towers overlooking Wizard and Reiko. Her hair lightly blew in the wind, then all of a sudden she jumped down beside Reiko. No one said anything for a few seconds. As Ranma was about to break the silence, Athena began to move. Her movements then coalesced into a dance, molding the scenery into a dance stage where Reiko and Wizard became only background noise.

Shu didn't glance over at Ranma and kept her attention on Athena. "The layer is like a song that you and your angel share. You don't force your thoughts on the layer or the angel, but instead feel the angel as a way to express your thoughts." Athena then did a large leap to the top of a tower looking upward at Fuu.

Ranma sighed, and began to concentrate once more on the angel.

Shu gently put her hand on Ranma's, "Don't force it, feel what you want the angel to sing for you."

Exhaling a breath Ranma didn't realize he was holding before, he relaxed back in the seat. Now instead of only looking at the angel he viewed the scene as a whole and visualized the scene with Reiko getting up and standing.

"Yes!" Ranma stood out of his seat, fist extended in the air.

Shu was surprised at his outburst and her hand withdrew in shock, then she began to laugh. Icchan inwardly also smiled.


End file.
